Crypto Film Finder [community contest 3] | Dope [The Movie]

Thanks to the prompt from @sndbox, I've been thinking about movies that explored the concept of cryptocurrency. While there are many that fits this bill, Dope holds a sweet spot in my mind.

What's the movie about?

Here's a rundown of the plot from [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dope_(2015_film)

Malcolm Adekanbi and his best friends, Jib and Diggy, are high school "geeks" living in "The Bottoms," a crime-frequent neighborhood in Inglewood, California. Malcolm is confident he will be admitted to his dream school, Harvard University, on his academic ability, but his school counselor berates him since their school is in a run-down suburb in Los Angeles. He suggests Malcolm take college application process more seriously, starting with an upcoming interview with businessman and Harvard alumnus, Austin Jacoby.

While biking home, Malcolm is stopped by Dom, a drug dealer who instructs him to invite a girl named Nakia to his party. Finding him charming, Nakia tells Malcolm to reply that she will only accept if Malcolm goes. Despite initial reluctance, Jib and Diggy convince Malcolm to go and the trio arrives. During the party, Dom and his crew meet in a back room to buy high-grade, powdered molly but are interrupted by an armed gang, and several people are shot. Hiding behind the bar, Dom finds Malcolm's backpack and fills it with the drugs and a gun, giving it to Malcolm and sending him away while the police arrive. Nakia then drives Malcolm home when he offers her help for the GED.

The next day, Malcolm discovers the items and an iPhone. Immediately, an unknown man calls, reveals that he knows Malcolm's identity and instructs him to turn over the drugs that day. After school, Malcolm begins to approach the car to hand over the drugs when he receives another phone call on the same iPhone. Dom, in custody, had called Malcolm to tell him not to give the drugs over to the other caller. He texts Malcolm an address and tells him to ask for AJ. Malcolm, Jib and Diggy flee to the address, while being chased by the unknown caller. They arrive at the address and are greeted by a young man named Jaleel and his sister Lily. Since their father, AJ, isn't home, Jaleel invites them inside his father's mansion and takes Jib and Diggy out for food while Malcolm stays with Lily. She seduces him, finds the drugs and takes a heavy dose. Meanwhile, Malcolm gets a phone call reminding him of the interview. Lily, intoxicated, drives him but passes out at a stop sign, who then runs out of the car and publicly urinates on a bush while bystanders record. Malcolm takes her car and drives to the meeting himself.

Arriving at Jacoby's office, he notices photos of Dom, Lily and Jaleel in the man's office and realizes he is AJ. Malcolm relays Dom's instructions to Jacoby, who denies any knowledge and subtly indicates that the contents of the bag are now Malcolm's responsibility. Jacoby reschedules the interview - if the drugs aren't sold by then, Jacoby won't give Malcolm a good recommendation to Harvard. Low on options, Malcolm, Jib and Diggy seek help from a college student they met years ago, Will Sherwood. A stoner and hacker, he sets up an online black-market website to sell the drugs through Bitcoin transactions, which soon goes viral.

Malcolm helps Nakia study, where she opens up to him. He then accuses her of being sent by Dom to gather info and pushes her away. The next day, Malcolm asks Will to extract cash from the Bitcoins, and arranges a meeting with a money-laundering gangster named Fidel. With the meeting going as planned, Malcolm leaves with a bag of cash but is assaulted by the school bully and company, quickly overpowering him and takes the bag. Desperate, he defends himself by pulling the gun, getting the money back and earning the bully's respect.

Returning to AJ's office for his interview, Malcolm tells Jacoby that he has sold the drugs but has left a trail leading to Jacoby. Unless Jacoby admits him to Harvard, Malcolm will transfer the Bitcoins to Jacoby's checking account, which will frame Jacoby and lead to his arrest. He then types his college application essay. He describes two students – Student A is a music geek that plays in a punk band and gets straight As, while Student B suffers in the hood and makes money in immoral ways. He then asks, "Which student do you think I am?"

Malcolm waits for Nakia at prom, but she does not show at all. Later, Nakia meets Malcolm at his home and thanks him for helping her pass her GED, giving him a pass to Six Flags and kisses him on the cheek. He then goes inside and enters his room to find an envelope from Harvard on his bed. He opens it and looks at the audience before smiling

What does it have to do with cryptocurrency?

Well, Malcolm had to sell drugs. He needed a way to get payments without revealing his identity to the feds so he decided to use bitcoin.

One hand, you could say it portrayed bitcoin in a negative light. But that's only one way to look at it.

For me, it proves that cryptocurrency was a means to fully take control of your business without the peering eyes of the government.

Plus, fiat currency has always been used for illegal deals. And that hasn't been enough reason to ban fiat currency.

Chexk out the movie if you can. It's quite interesting. Plus the storywriter is a Nigerian (my country)

Guess I was biased.

Hehehe